


Excuse 365

by Luigi_Luigi



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: David's mom - Freeform, Other, Sickfic, dadvid, despite being the one to write it, don't entirely go along with, insomniac!David, this is all structured on David's made up familial background that I, whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 20:06:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17567141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luigi_Luigi/pseuds/Luigi_Luigi
Summary: I've got two shorts here that are related to the same "story", so basically:David loves his family but BOY does he not want to deal with the aftermath that'll come with the conversation starter, "Hello, I impulsively adopted this 10 year old who swears A Lot." Then he has to go to his cousin's wedding so there goes his plan of just never mentioning the rest of his life to them.(The shorts mostly just use that summary as a background reference?)





	1. I wrote this second but am posting it first

**Author's Note:**

> The cat bit my laptop today, Benny. I'd like to think that you possessed him in those few seconds he tried to love my screen to death, but I know better. You're both psychopaths.
> 
> I put in a bit of history about David's family. Usually, I avoid doing that. I am a vague writer. So this is one of those "headcanon" things that I'll be using about twice, here right now, and then never mention again. Unlike Dadvid and Insomniac David which is again consistent with every dumb thing I make.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've got two shorts here that are related to the same "story", so basically:
> 
> David loves his family but BOY does he not want to deal with the aftermath that'll come with the conversation starter, "Hello, I impulsively adopted this 10 year old who swears A Lot." Then he has to go to his cousin's wedding so there goes his plan of just never mentioning the rest of his life to them.
> 
> (The shorts mostly just use that summary as a background reference?)  
> Notes:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cat bit my laptop today, Benny. I'd like to think that you possessed him in those few seconds he tried to love my screen to death, but I know better. You're both psychopaths.
> 
> I put in a bit of history about David's family. Usually, I avoid doing that. I am a vague writer. So this is one of those "headcanon" things that I'll be using about twice, here right now, and then never mention again. Unlike Dadvid and Insomniac David which is again consistent with every dumb thing I make. 
> 
> I'd also like to defend David's swear with the fact that he's suddenly stressed out and if that's not too clear it's because I didn't provide enough context. (why does this chapters end notes appear on the second one thats not what i wanted)

David didn’t have any siblings. He didn’t grow up with a father. He had a lot a relatives though. A lot of cousins. He had his mother. She tried and David appreciated her. There were times though when she got a little overbearing for him. Times when all those relatives were a little too much. Even for someone as optimistic as David. 

He didn't end on a bad note. Simply made plans to move out as soon as he was able. He got a job at his old summer camp. He found an old cabin like house to live in and fix up. He called every now and then. Or answered calls, since he sometimes forgot. Often forgot. He occasionally visited. Although usually, it was the family that invited him. David found that he started avoiding family gatherings, at least the ones that included more than his mother and maybe a couple cousins. That was how he balanced his life. Summer job, winter jobs, and family in between. 

Then there was Max. 

When David first met the kid, he’d only wanted him to enjoy his summer at the camp. As David got to know him better, got to be subjected to the boy’s penchant for mischief and attempts to make David miserable, he learned how bright Max was. Learned why he was always so unhappy. David had started out focusing more on Max’s happiness for the camps sake, but eventually he was doing it for solely Max’s sake. It was funny how someone that was the complete opposite of him could end up being his favorite camper. Not that David would admit he picked favorites.

Although, perhaps, in the end, that was a good thing. David doubted he could have been as half impulsive otherwise when the kid’s parents never showed up at the end of camp. It probably helped that Max apparently didn’t hate David as much as he implied. So Max went home with his new guardian at the end of the summer and David’s life schedule shifted. Summer job, Max, winter jobs, Max, fully avoiding the rest of his family in between, and Max. 

It had been nearly a year and a half since David had bothered to visit his family and he’d only answered a handful of their calls, usually when Max was at school and he had a day off from working an odd job. It was one of those calls that actually kicked things into action. David had been trying to sleep of the feeling of death that came from his persistent insomnia when his phone rang. He hadn’t looked at the caller and simply answered because that was all the steps his sleep-deprived brain could figure out how to complete. 

It was his mother. She wanted him to visit because one of his cousins were getting married. How nice, he’d said on autopilot. Could he visit? He hadn’t visited for a long while. Everyone wondered what he was getting up to. They missed his calls, his mother had told him. Sure he could come, he said because that seemed the fastest way to go back to trying to sleep. He was starting to wake up too much and then that would make a stressed David and a stressed David picking up Max from school tended to make an irritated Max and that wasn’t good for anyone. Or so David’s tired brain told him. He realized his mother was still talking to him. 

“You’ll get an invitation in the mail later, it should have all the info you need.” She said.

“Mmhmm.” David hummed dreamily into his pillow.

When she eventually hung up, David put his phone on silent, threw it across the room, and dozed for 3 hours. His alarm to get Max forced him from the bed and sleep wasn’t an option once he was standing. As he listened to Max complain about idiotic teachers and annoying classmates on the way home, he didn’t realize he’d forgotten his mother’s call. At least until the invitation appeared in the mail. 

It was on Friday, right after Max had gotten out of school. Max was the one in fact who grabbed it out of the mailbox. David had wandered into the kitchen and when he turned around Max had slapped the lavender envelope on the table.

“What the fuck is that?” The boy demanded. David picked it up from the table. 

“Shit.” The curse slipped from his mouth without permission. 

Max rose a brow and David sat down at the table with a sigh, rubbing at his temples.

“I forgot about this.”

“And what is ‘this’ exactly?” Max asked, gesturing at the envelope.

“An invitation.” David said as he tore it open. “To my cousin’s wedding. Which my mom called me about like a week ago. Except I was in the middle of crashing so I’m not sure what incoherent me agreed to.” 

“Obviously you agreed to go to your cousin’s wedding.”

David didn’t answer. He was reading over the invitation. His cousin was Rachel and she was marrying someone named Jake. The time and date was a week duration at her house. Which meant David would have to stay with his mom and possibly a couple other relatives for a few days before and after the actual wedding day. 

“You look like you got an invitation to your cousin’s funeral, not their wedding.”

David looked up. “What?”

“I assumed something like a wedding would get you, like, unbearably hyped, but you look like you’re dreading this as much as I would.” Max said. 

“Oh. Well, I don’t really dread supporting my cousin’s wedding so much as having to interact with a lot of relatives that are going to show up and judge every aspect of my life especially since I’ve kinda been avoiding contact with them.” David rambled, breath short. 

“Do you hate your family or something?”

“No! No, of course not, they’re just… a little overwhelming sometimes. Even for me.” David chuckled. “It’s fine when I only visit them once in a while, but I have been really bad at keeping in touch recently.”

Max gave him a long, hard stare. “They have no idea I exist, do they?”

“...No,” David admitted in a strained voice. 

“Are you planning to tell them or are we gonna pretend you're babysitting like some cliche comedy?” Max asked. 

The look David shot him made him add, “That's a joke, David.”

“Are you sure? Because to a certain extent, I feel like cliche comedy would be the less complicated route.” 

“God, you’re pathetic.” Max shook his head.

  
  



	2. I wrote this first but am posting it second

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've got two shorts here that are related to the same "story", so basically:
> 
> David loves his family but BOY does he not want to deal with the aftermath that'll come with the conversation starter, "Hello, I impulsively adopted this 10 year old who swears A Lot." Then he has to go to his cousin's wedding so there goes his plan of just never mentioning the rest of his life to them.
> 
> (The shorts mostly just use that summary as a background reference?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Benny, leave David's mom alone.
> 
> This has more involvement of "background" characters. It's why I tagged David's fuckn mom. I'll just come out an say it, her personality is purely for the plot. I wanted something with David being parental defensive about his grumpy boi and some weird thing about outsider realization that Max does appreciate his Dadvid despite his attitude. Pretty sure everything got muddled up.

They were only there for a week, so of course, Max managed to get sick in under two of those days. David hadn’t noticed until it got worse, Max not bothering to say anything about his lesser symptoms. Max had gotten a fairly high fever and obviously was not going to be able to sit for several hours in a little suit while David’s cousin got married. The man was plenty willing to sit out to take care of him, but his mother was insistent he still attended the wedding while she babysat. He’d reluctantly agreed.

David knew that she wasn’t exactly fond of Max, in the same way she wasn’t fond of David when he was younger and still had an attitude problem. He knew that she, as well as just about all his other relatives, had shaken their heads at the fact that he suddenly had a kid to look after. A grumpy, troublesome, foul-mouthed kid. David could practically hear their judgmental thoughts about how “impulsive” and “easy to walk all over” they considered him. Funnily enough, though, Max already subjected him to so much verbal abuse that it didn’t have as much of an effect as he thought it would. Although, perhaps that was just a case in point. 

The reception had passed and now guests were just meandering around or eating at fancy clothed tables. The cake was being cut. David was feeling a little anxious at being gone for so long and had been considering for the past half hour to skip out early. Then the man’s phone started to ring. He excused himself to the hallway, covering one ear with his hand and pressing his phone to the other in his struggle to hear the caller over the noise of the crowd. 

“Davey?” It was his mother. 

“Yeah? Mom? What’s up?” 

“Ah, listen. Max is, well, um. I can’t find him.”

David paused. Did he hear that right? He stepped further down the hall. 

“Sorry, what? What do you mean you can’t find him?”

“I went to check on him and he just wasn’t there. I searched the house, but he’s not anywhere. All I can imagine is that he ran off.” David’s mother’s voice was concerned, but he could detect just the slightest edge of annoyance with it. 

“Okay, well. He has a fever, Mom. He’s not far.” David racked his brain. 

Max didn’t disappear often. He hadn’t done it lately, but then the kid hadn’t had much reason to. Some stress must have been getting to him. Maybe amped up by his fever? Perhaps his fever had gotten worse and that, coupled with the fact David wasn’t there, had made him feel too vulnerable. Especially around someone he was probably very aware was only providing a polite response to his person. 

“I was about to go out and look for him, but I have no idea where to even start.”

“Actually,” David said. “I’m pretty sure he’s still in the house.”

“You know where he is?”

“I know where he probably is, but, Mom. I’ll find him. I’m gonna come home-” David was cut off. 

“No! Davey, I can get him. You’re at a wedding. It’s not good to blow off something like that.”

“I’m not blowing anything off. I’ve been here for most of it and I’m sure they’ll understand. Doubt they’ll really notice. It’s more important I get back to Max. I was already thinking about leaving early anyway.” David said stubbornly. He could hear his mother huff through the phone. Thank God he was an adult and she couldn’t just bulldoze through his arguments. 

“It’s fine. I’ll be home soon.” He hung up the phone. 

For once, David was a little glad that one of the coping mechanisms Max had developed was to hide when he got overwhelmed. David cared for his mother, but she was more likely to make things worse if she had managed to find Max. Like David, she tried to keep a positive and upbeat attitude, but she was also the one who gave him his temper. Hot-head and red-head apparently went hand in hand and she tended to be worse than David at keeping calm. 

One of the things that set her off were things like people who were cynical and generally unfriendly. Of course. Max had been poking at her whether he’d intended it or not. David really did not want her to take advantage of a vulnerable Max to chew him out about his so-called attitude problem. That was something that would set David off. 

On the drive back, he tried to mentally list all the places Max could fit and, of those places, which he was most likely to go. The worse the stress, the more difficult game of hide and seek. Then again, Max had a fever. That might slow him down. Or it would make him equally determined to be hard to find. David couldn’t help the huff of laughter that escaped him. He was pretty sure his mother didn’t do this kind of thing when he was a kid. That was probably why she didn’t understand Max. 

She didn’t know him. David was the one who worked with the kid. She didn’t even know Max existed before now, even if it was the fault of David. But he had been a little hesitant to tell her and the rest of his family about Max for fear of the inevitable interrogation. He’d been vague. Max hated talking about how he ended up in David’s care. David himself always felt a little awkward when he had to bring it up. He’d adopted Max and that was that. Did he really have to explain why?

Obviously. Maybe he could still be vague. If he made it clear Max’s background was a sensitive one, he could just drop little bits of information he’d gathered. Like Max’s hiding habit. They didn’t have to know every detail. He could tell his mother that it was just something Max did, that it was something they were working on. Just like everything else. It took time. Max took time and patience. David was willing to put in that effort. His reward was, well, Max. A bright and funny and talented kid. One that wanted to be his kid, even if he often shy to admit it. 

“Mom?” David called out, once he’d stepped into the house. He shrugged off his coat and began to tug at his tie. 

“In here, Davey.” His mother stepped in the doorway of the kitchen. 

“Where’d you last see Max?” David asked.

“In the bedroom. Where you put him before you left.”

David started to walk down the hallway, his mother trailing after. 

“Like I said over the phone, I searched all over the house. Are you sure he’s still here?”

“Yeah, he doesn’t usually just run off outside or anything like that. He’s around somewhere.” David murmured. He peered in the bedroom, glancing over the furniture. Max probably wasn’t in there. A nearby room, though. Perhaps the bathroom. There were cabinets in there and if he felt ill in any other way…

“So he does this a lot?” 

David’s brow twitched. His mother’s tone was something like an expectant scoff. Accusing. He sighed. 

“If he’s stressed, he does it.” David explained in a clipped voice. “He’s sick and I wasn’t here, so you know.” 

She didn’t, he knew she didn’t. David tried to gather his patience.

“Where’s he hiding then?” 

“Somewhere a 10-year-old can fit? Someplace you really have to search for.” David started to mumble his thoughts aloud. He paused. “How bad was his fever?”

“Same as when you left. At least, until he decided to disappear.” 

David crouched in front of the bathroom cabinets. It was always a guessing game, but he had gotten better at getting this right on the first try. This was one of those times. He opened the cabinet door and Max immediately toppled out of it. Well, at least he didn’t have to coax him out of his hiding spot like he often had to. 

Unfortunately, this seemed to be due to Max’s fever. David hardly had to bother pressing a palm to the boy’s forehead. He could feel the fevered heat radiating off him, face flushed and glassy eyes barely open. 

“Hey, can you sit up for me, Max?” David asked softly. 

The boy was lying limp in his arms, sticky with sweat, but at David’s request, he stirred. Not too incoherent, that was good. 

“There we go…” David murmured, as Max shifted himself into a sitting position. He still leaned heavily against the man for support. 

“Here, Davey.” His mother handed him a thermometer. “He’s also due for some medicine.” 

She headed off to the kitchen, where the all the pills were kept on the top shelf of one of the cupboards. David popped the thermometer into Max’s mouth. He chuckled at the boy’s bewildered face, unprepared for the foreign object. While waiting for the beep of the temperature check, he hoisted Max up onto the counter. David kept a steady hand on his shoulder while he reached over and grabbed a washcloth. He ran it under the water before proceeding to dab the damp cloth over the boy’s face. Max leaned into his touch.

David’s mother came back, rattling a little bottle. She shook out two pills and handed them over. The thermometer beeped. David pulled it from Max’s mouth a pressed the pills into his small, sweat sticky hands. 

“Max? Can you take these, please?” 

The boy stared at the pills in his palm, seeming to need a moment to process what to do with them, then carefully dumped them into his mouth. David offered him a smile, then frowned as he glanced at the temperature the thermometer read. Fairly high, but still manageable. For now.

“Alright, off to bed with you.” David picked Max up, tilting his head to accommodate for the boy’s arms wrapping around his neck. His grip was still amazingly strong, despite the fever. Max murmured something into his neck.

“Hm?” 

Max shifted his head slightly. 

“C’n have some water?” He slurred. 

“Of course.” David said into the boy’s dark curls. “Mom?”

His mother nodded at the transferred request. She went back to the kitchen. David continued on to the bedroom. He drew back the covers before setting Max on the bed, pulling only a thin sheet over him. 

“You gon’ go ‘way again?” Max looked up at him blearily. David sat down on the edge of the bed.

“No. No, I’ll be here.” He assured, smoothing back the boy’s soft curls.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh yeah. Yeah Max's hiding thing from that first fic i made. yeah.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd also like to defend David's swear with the fact that he's suddenly stressed out and if that's not too clear it's because I didn't provide enough context.


End file.
